Given the developer’s strong relationship and history with PlayStation, Naughty Dog’s exclusive titles have been some of the most popular games on PlayStation platforms. As such, The Last of Us Part II is one of the most anticipated games in the works for the PlayStation 4. However, news broke out last year that the sequel would be missing a key figure from the first game in its development. It was confirmed that The Last of Us’s director Bruce Straley would be leaving Naughty Dog, and now he has given more information regarding his decision to move on from the company.

Director Bruce Straley recently appeared on an episode of the Kotaku Splitscreen podcast and gave his reasoning for stepping down. It seems that the biggest factor for Straley’s exit has been the stress and workload that came from directing Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Given his obsessive nature, Straley felt like the toll the game’s development took on him necessitated his stepping away upon its completion, saying:

“So there was this constant, it had nothing to do with Naughty Dog, nothing to do with games, it’s just me, I’m a perfectionist, what we’re going after, just triple-A. Everything all culminated into, ‘Oh my god, it’s time to take a break. It’s just time to step away.’”

It also did not help that Uncharted 4 had a somewhat rapid development period in mind to meet the game’s planned release date. As such, Straley felt slightly obligated to lead the project to ensure the game was completed on time. As he says:

“I guess there’s a difference between doing something for yourself which feels passionate—and I had my own theories that I was trying to expand upon between Uncharted 1, 2, and The Last of Us—and then Uncharted 4 became more like, ‘How do I do this for the team and for the company?’ Because we needed to get the game out the door, and we needed it to be something good, so that it didn’t put a mark on the Naughty Dog name.”

Given all of these factors, Straley made a deal with Naughty Dog that would allow him to leave the company following the completion of Uncharted 4’s development. While sadly, this would mean that Straley would not return to the direct The Last of Us: Part II as he did for the first game, it is understandable that he would know when to step down, lest his personal life and any future work of his suffer in quality. While Straley has not announced his plans for the future, we here at Don’t Feed the Gamers sincerely wish him all of the best in his future endeavors. What do you guys think about these comments from director Bruce Straley? Let us know in the comments below!

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